Let the Fall Season Begin

I've coached my daughter's team for 4 years now and we're moving into our 5th year. With 4 years of coaching experience, I felt pretty well prepared to coach a 2nd team, my twin boys' brand new U5 team. As you may guess, I could not have been more wrong. It was a complete disaster.

Perhaps it was the 100 degree temperature (though it didn't feel that bad). Perhaps the kids were tired from staying up too late on these long summer days. Perhaps 4 year old boys are just completely different than 4 year old girls. To say the least, practice did not go as planned.

I called the boys together to start of practice. I kept the talking really short (as any "good" coach would) and we got right down to the business of kicking the ball around.

Lesson # 1: Make the box bigger.
After showing them a couple of ways to dribble the ball, we did the classic dribble around the box drill. Six boys just learning to dribble needed a little more space than I expected. What happened next was a little unexpected. When they dribbled the ball out of the box on accident, instead of just dribbling back in, they started throwing fits. I guess we're a team of perfectionists. Well, not everyone. We had one that just decided it was too hot and he needed to go sit in the shade. I think another one joined him, but I was so busy trying to explain that "you just keep trying when things don't go right," I lost track. I had parents helping all over the place. There was very little soccer going on.

Lesson #2: No box is big enough.
OK, we'll get rid of the box and do some wide open dribbling. Well the boys tended to cluster anyway and boy1 would kick boy2's ball and here we go to "fit land" again. For the few that survived long enough to get near a goal, when they missed the goal this too was cause for whining and crying. Water break!

Lesson #3: No activity is safe.
"Alright boys, come over here and sit down. We need to settle down a bit. Let's get to know each other." Well this activity was actually going well. No one was crying. Everyone was present. Then all of the sudden we realize the recent rain as brought out the fire ants and they're attacking us! Luckily, I think I'm the only one that got bitten, but once again parents and kids were all over the place picking fire ants off of our little soccer players.

We never did play any soccer. All I could do was laugh and tell the boys that it was time to go play in the water (there was a water park where we practiced and the plan was to play there afterwards). I'm sure the parents are wondering what they've signed their boys up for, but they did laugh with me and assure me things would go better (because they couldn't get any worse).

We practice again next Monday. My mother has said she'll pray for me. I think I will need a miracle.

-Bill